Carton-cabinet.



No. 774,291. v PATENTED NOV. 8, 1904. P. M. THORPE, CARTON CABINET.

APPLICATION FILED NIB. 6. 1904.

no MODEL.

IIII. \Z Y II/I/Il/IIIIII/IIIIIIIIIIIII I/III/II/IIIII(IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIA 'veniently holding and displaying cartons of willcontain a large number of cartons and au- -edges and near their frontends.

UNITED STATES Patented November 8, 1964.

PATENT Erica.

FRANK M. THORPE, OF LAMAR, MISSOURI.

CARTON-CABINET.

SPECIFICATION Application filed February 6. 1904.

T0 roll whmn it may concern.-

Beit known that I, FRANK M. THoRPE,acitizen of the United States,residing at Lamar, in the county of Barton and State of Missouri, haveinvented certain new and useful Improvements in Carton-Cabinets, ofwhich the following is a specification.

My invention relates to cabinets for conspices or other merchandise; andmy object is to producea device of this character which tornaticall ydisplay them at points from which they can be readily removed.

A further object is to produce a cabinet of this character provided withinclined trays which can be readily removed to be charged with cartonsand which are readily replaced.

Other objects of the invention hereinafter appear and are pointed out inthe appended claims, and in order that the invention may be fullyunderstood reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings, in whichFigure 1 is a front view of a carton-cabinet embodying my invention, thebottom tray being omitted to disclose its supporting-cleats. Fig. 2 is avertical section on the dotted line H of Fig. 1, the tray omitted fromFig. 1 being shown in dotted lines in this figure.

Referring to the drawings in detail, the cabinet, which may be ofornamental design, comprises a base 1, side walls 2, back wall 3, top4:, and front wall 5, the latter by preference depending but a shortdistance from the top.

6 designates a series of cleats secured to the innersides of the sidewalls and pitched downwardly at about the angle shown clearly in I Fig.2, said cleats by preference having substantially ii-shaped notches 7 intheir upper The cleats are disposed a distance apart to accommodatetrays of varying depth. The trays are preferably of skeletonconstruction and cornprise front walls 8, rounded at their upper andinner edges, as at 9, for convenience in removing the cartons, backwalls 10, skeleton-bottoms in the form of a plurality of rods 11,connecting the bottoms of the front and back walls, and side Walls 12,the latter beforming part of Letters Patent No. 774,291, dated November8, 1904. I

Serial No. 192,463. (No model.)

ing recessed at their front ends, as at 13, so as to make the cartonsmore easily removed. Lugs or catches 14 depend from the side walls 12and by engagement with the notches 7 of the cleats hold the traysreliably in the cabi-' net, the trays being lifted slightly at theirfront ends to disengage said lugs or catches from said notches to permitthe trays to he slid forward from the cabinet. The trays are provided,by preference, with longitudinal partitions 15, which correspond to thesides 12, said partitions being spaced with reference to each other andthe sides of the trays to correspond approximately with the width of thecartons, so that the side edges of one series of cartons shall not comein contact with the contiguous edges'of the adjacent series of the sametray.

To increase the capacity of the cabinet without increasing the number ofthe trays, the latter are provided withrunways 16, formed, preferably,by bending wire to U.form and pivoting or hinging the ends of said wireto the back walls of the trays, as at 17, said pivotal or hinge pointbeing a distance above the bottom of the trays slightly exceeding thethickness of a carton.

To charge or load a tray, it is withdrawn from the cabinet and thehinged runway 16 swung upwardly out of theway to permit a series of,cartons to be placed upon the skeleton bottom, which being made of rods,as stated, forms a smooth runway for the cartons for a purpose whichpresently appears. The hinged runways are then dropped down upon saidseries of cartons and a second series is placed upon the hinged runways.The tray is then slid into the cabinet. In the drawings the topmost trayis shown in Fig. 2 as completely charged. The tray next below disclosesthe appearance of the tray when its topmost series of cartons has beenremoved. The third tray is shown as empty and the fourth tray aspartially empty and as containing cartons of greater thickness than thetrays above.

When a carton is purchased, the salesman lifts it off the front end ofthe tray without moving the latter, and as he does so the remainingcartons of the same series slide down the runway until the foremost oneis arrested I00 in the position occupied by the one which was removed,this action being repeated until all of the cartons ofthe upper seriesof that particular tray-compartment have been removed. To remove thelower series, he lifts out the foremost one and thememainder slidedownward until arrested by the front wall, this action being repeateduntil all of the cartons of the compartment have been removed, when thetray is withdrawn and refilled.

single carton it will be know to the salesman, and he will also knowwhen ehas exhausted the supply of any particular tray-compart ment.

From the above description it will be apparent that I have produced acarton-cabinet which embodies the features of advantage enumerated asdesirable in the statement of invention and which is obviouslysusceptible of modification in various particulars without departingfrom the essential spirit and scope or sacrificing any of the advantagesof the invention, it being obvious, furthermore, that by equipping thecabinet with a suitable door (not shown) the cabinet can be madesubstantially air-proof, so asto avoid deterioration of the contents ofthe cabinet.

Having thus described the invention, what I claim as new, and desire tosecure by Letters Patent of the United States, is-

1. Acabinethavingitsfrontsideopen,trays within the cabinet and pitcheddownwardly and forwardly at a suitable angle, and a run- It will thus beseen that if the tray contains but a.

way in the tray which is substantially parallel with the bottom of thelatter and has its front end occupying a plane below the upper edge ofthe front wall of the tray.

2'. Acabinet havingits frontside open,trays within the cabinet andpitched downwardly and forwardly at a suitable angle, and a runway inthe tray which is substantially parallel with the bottom of the latterand has its front end occupying a plane below the upper edge of thefront wall of the tray; the rear end of said runway being hinged to therear wall of the tray.

3. A cabinet having its front side open, cleats therein which slopedownwardly and forwardly to said opening and are provided with notchesin their upper sides, and a tray resting upon said cleats and providedwith depending lugs or catches engaging said notches.

4:. A cabinet having its front side open, cleats therein which slopedownwardly and forwardly to said opening and are provided with notchesin their upper sides, a tray resting upon said cleats and provided withdepending lugs or catches engaging said notches, and a runway carried bysaid tray and adapted to extend substantially parallel with and betweenits bottom and upper edge.

In testimony whereof I afiix my signature in 'the presence of twowitnesses.

FRANK M. 'lHORPR. \Vitnesses:

M. L. MARTIN, J. P. Moons.

